COMMENTS

Anyone Know If Microsoft got caught

The other day I saw them advertising Xbox Movie service, with a spinning head style advert, at the end it said Xbox from £159. The problem of course is, you need to spend a further £80 on a HDD, then another £40 a year for Xbox Live Gold, then you get the "privilege" to download movies for £5 a pop...

Doesn't surprise me.

I was about to comment something along the lines of "bollocks, if you read the page properly it's rarely a con" -- then I realised that, on a number of occasions, I have found that the product I want to order is more than the "headline" price and/or that "free 'First Class' shipping" turns into "free shipping if you'll wait a month". I then realised that my initial reaction was because I've just started to assume that there will be at least £5 added somewhere along the line when I'm shopping online and don't pay much attention to the exact price until the payment page.

@ MarkOne

Clearly you are a fanboy. Now go and play with your PS3 and download free HD movies which I bet there are plenty of them on PS network.

I still think that the whole point of a games console is to play games, if I want a BR player, I'll buy a BR player. Bet you don't play many games, do you Mark? Do you, Mark?

The movies at £5 a pop as you say are there as a convenience, no one's forced to buy them.

The £40 (£30 on eBay or even cheaper if you are wise) are money very well spent as the on-line experience is second to none, after all you get what you pay for.

£80 for a HDD? Once again you are wrong my friend. Go on ebay and 50-60 quid is what you are looking at.

An Elite with a 120GB costs £200 nowadays which is excellent value as a games console with all the trimmings. Don't give me your wi-fi bullshit please as I don't care as many people's consoles are not far away from the router. ISP didn't give you a free router? Idiot, learn to shop around.

@Marco Alfarrobinha

Way to miss the point completely Marco. MarkOne wasn't talking about the quality, features or otherwise of the XBox, merely that the online advert was distinctly misleading by stating FROM 159 quid when in fact it's nothing of the sort after you've factored in the extra costs involved to get the product advertised.

Read the post properly next time, find somewhere to dump the chip on your shoulder, and you might be able to write something which doesn't make you look like a complete dick.

@Marco

MarkOne's point seemed absolutely valid? Can you access the Xbox movie service with a £159 XBox? Taking your own figures, it's a £200 XBox you need apparently (or £239 if you buy separately). Retail prices, however, would seem to make it a £279 console needed (including all necessary options and subscriptions).

Whichever way you look at it, £159 comes across as being way short of the mark, and therefore misleading imho.

I know it's not gadgets but....

I looked to buying flights with them and they insist on this £10 charge for using a debit or credit charge, even though they get charged only a fraction of that.

I was about to purchase tickets when I noticed that they multiply that £10 by the number of tickets you are purchasing even though it's only one transaction. Family of five? £50 please. Cheeky scumbags.

IT angle - well it does allow web checkin, although I can't quite see how I can get my luggage to them via a website

Never mind

You do get 60Gb hdd and 1 month xbox live for 155

For £155-£165 (froogle) you do get 60GB hard drive indeed.You also receive free one month xbox live subscription and therefore, without paying extra, it is possible to get movies for £5 a pop with a £155 device. Even tesco direct price is £165 and it is always more expensive than technology specific outlets.

You don't get a HDMI cable but its only a few pounds if you know where to buy from.